Ethical sourcing
What is ‘ethical’ about the way Pucket games are sourced?
Our supplier (Aspiration International) works with independent craftsmen and women in India, providing fair wages, advance payments where necessary, and support and advice to reach export markets. Aspiration International aim to increase the craftsmen and women’s quality of life in a stable manner, enabling them to take on their own employees, improve their living conditions, and send their children to school.
Who are Aspiration International?
Aspiration International is a company based in Delhi, founded by Padam Kapoor in 1993. Padam used to work in handicraft development for the Indian government, but felt that he could do more to help economically weak artisans through establishing a private company that would buy and export their products, giving them a dependable and fair wage.
How have you made sure that your supplier is as ethical as he claims?
We have visited Aspiration International’s offices in Delhi, as well as one of the craftsmen’s workshops. We also have had recommendations from Shared Earth and Oxfam in Australia. Oxfam have worked with Aspiration International since its inception and have seen for themselves the consistent improvement in quality of life of the craftsmen and women.
What about being fair trade?
Fair trade means refusing to take advantage of people’s poverty and weak bargaining position to drive down their wages and working conditions to undignified levels. For many products such as coffee, chocolate, and bananas, acceptable wages and conditions are stipulated and audited by organisations such as the Fairtrade Foundation, which then licenses use of the fair trade logo. No such standards have been created yet for wooden craft items such as Pucket. However, we are 100% committed both to the spirit of fair trade, and to transparency about what we are doing so that you can judge the standards yourself. We've also joined the British Association For Fair Trade Shops, for which we have been carefully vetted.
Are Pucket games made from sustainably sourced wood?
Unfortunately we cannot be sure. The wood is bought locally, and most likely comes from government plantations, but that doesn’t give us any guarantees. This is something we really care about, and as we grow we’ll be looking into this further.
Why not just make games in the UK?
We did look into this, but the costs would be very high, especially to have the games hand made to the same quality as they are now. We also feel it is worthwhile supporting Indian handicrafts, and the artisans there whose skills have been increasingly underemployed as more and more goods are mass produced in factories.
